Okay you magnet scientists out there, here is a tough one.

I would like to have a massive floating metal bird in my art project. I would like the bird to way about 2000 pounds and have dimensions of 6 feet long, 4 feet wide and 2 feet high.

The higher I can get this bird to float the better. I would like it to float at least 2 feet in the air.

From my research, Neodymium is the strongest permanent magnet material. But the largest magnets made of this material are less than 6 inches. I am sure the manufacturing process in not simple and thus the small sizes.

Of course if what I am asking for is theoretically impossible, I will accept a smaller bird and a lower levitation.

Since this is an art piece, I want it to last forever without an outside power source, so electromagnetic solutions almost out of the question.

Please do not let the cost of your proposed solution prevent you from suggesting it; even if it would cost millions.

The base of the artwork that the bird floats above can be made of anything you suggest. The bottom of the bird and the top of the base can be loaded with repelling magnets. We can use any materials to separate the magnets so that they do not offset each other if we need to use many magnets on the bottom of the bird.

Why did you feel the need to start five separate topics to ask the same question?

If you are an artist, you should have resources available to you other than spamming an idiot's forum with more idiocy, hm?

Okay due to the to the shape of the bird the this will probably be difficult.

1 thing that would be helpful is if you could keep the weight down.

I make maglev hockey tables with pyrolytic graphite and NdFeB magnets.
The lift is on the order of a millimeter and pyrolytic graphite is really light.
They're really expensive but they do work well.

Super conductors will provide more lift up 2"+ I have seen as high as 4" however the cooling becomes an issue. If cost is really no object Talk to the owner of http://www.superconductors.org/News.htm Ask if he would work with you to work out the kinks of separating the fractional amount of Room temp Superconducting material from the bulk.

This method may not be as artistic but cheaper in the short term. Make the bird out of aluminium or at least a large surface area on the bottom using lenz's law either rotating several rotating magnet circles counter rotating for stability. or large AC Magnet coils below the bird probably would need to have their frequency variable.

Lastly just using magnets alone could work however the bird would need guides for stability that go through the bird astheticly ruining the floating effect.

Without certain quantum effects taken into account, no configuration of permanent magnets will achieve stable, supportless static levitation.

Electromagnets allow dynamic levitation.

Diamagnetism (of water) allows one to levitate a frog in a 30 T electromagnet.

Bismuth is a strongly diamagnetic metal, but it is also one of the heavier metals -- almost 10 times denser than water. It's prone to making hoppered crystals, is toxic but less toxic than lead, and its oxide is prone to iridescence.

I don't think this project would cost JUST millions.

While you can start to build a scale model, ultimately you are going have to have some source of extraordinarily powerful large dimension permanent magnets that will pose a hazard to your audience. If it can levitate 1000 kg 60 cm in the air, imagine what it would do to someone with ferromagnetic jewelry, fasteners or surgical implants. Transport would be hazardous as well.

Since there are different areas of expertise and this question may span several catagories, I wanted to make sure I reached the best candidates.

btw: wasn't that obvious. Are you not doing what you are complaining about by asking this?

If you have "millions" available, you can research it more effectively than by using the shallow end of the pool to splash about and make noise, child.

It is extremely unlikely that permanent magnets can do what you want: It would be much more cost-effective to use electromagnets and turn them off after hours for your display.

Your posts are disingenuous at best. Hire an engineer, or at worst, go to a forum where there are people who can help. Here, all you will do is excite the crackpots.

you could use Biefeld–Brown effect.

Drawbacks

Weight cannot be 2000 lbs really that would be true for anything you do.
Needs a power source.
Shocks from discharge could annoy audience members if they get too close.

Not sure it could be made aesthetically pleasing and functional. Maybe if you used anodized sheets of aluminium foil for the feathers combined with Coanda effect you could have a full bodied bird with feathers and a somewhat invisible and reasonably quiet source of lift.


On the plus side you could control the height of the lift.
it could 'float' 5' or more above ground.

Sounds like a fun project.

Why not make a bird our of hydrogen balloons and paint them to look like a steel and control it with an invisible flow of air?
Also it would be easier to make bird pushing its wings so it looks more realistic, like it was really flying.


:-)

ps. It could use wind or solar energy to power movement. E.g. the higher the temperature, the higher it goes, and the faster the wind is, the wings are moving faster.